Mark Pope loses his first coach’s challenge. Here’s how the new rule works
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Gameday: No. 12 Louisville 96, No. 9 Kentucky 88
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The “coach’s challenge” has come to college basketball.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope waited until game three to use it for the first time.
Pope challenged an out-of-bounds call that went against the Wildcats with 16:01 left in the game against the Louisville Cardinals on Tuesday night. The call came with UK trailing U of L 66-54 in the rivalry game.
At the time of Pope’s challenge, Louisville had quickly turned a seven-point halftime advantage into a double-digit lead, and the Yum Center crowd of 22,586 had reached one of its loudest points of the night.
Pope’s challenge, however, was not successful. Video replay showed the ball went out of bounds off Kentucky point guard Jaland Lowe.
The coach’s challenge — something that has been popularized by the major pro sports and was adopted in the NBA for the 2019-20 season — was approved by the NCAA for men’s basketball during the offseason.
Pope has been a vocal supporter of the measure, which is intended to improve the flow of play and decrease game times by dramatically limiting the number of official reviews by the referees. The UK coach did not use a challenge in the Wildcats’ victories over Nicholls and Valparaiso last week.
How does the college basketball coach’s challenge work?
College coaches are now allowed to challenge out-of-bounds calls, basket interference/goaltending and whether a secondary defender was in the restricted-area arc. To challenge a goaltending or basket interference situation, a call must be made on the floor. So a coach cannot challenge a play that was ruled a blocked shot.
Challenges can be made at any time during the game, though coaches will have just one at their disposal. If that challenge is successful, then the coach will get one more to use later in the game. If a challenge is unsuccessful, the coach will be unable to challenge for the rest of the game and lose a timeout.
A coach must have at least one timeout to initiate a challenge.
Referees can still initiate video reviews on basket interference/goaltending calls and restricted arc plays, but that can happen only in the final two minutes of the game and overtime. Referees can no longer review out-of-bounds calls — at any point during the game — unless initiated by a coach’s challenge.
Officials will still be able to use video review at their own discretion for timing mistakes, scoring errors, shot-clock violations and determining whether a shot was a 2-pointer or a 3-pointer. Referees will also be able to go to the monitor for a longer look at potential flagrant fouls.
This story was originally published November 11, 2025 at 9:22 PM.
